Joan B. Mannick
Ran the first clinical trials showing mTOR inhibition improves immune function in older adults
MD, Harvard Medical School · led Novartis's clinical mTOR-inhibitor aging program · co-founder, resTORbio · SVP & Chief Medical Officer, Altos Labs
Portrait: Altos Labs
Joan Mannick trained in internal medicine at Harvard before moving into drug development, first at Genzyme and then, from 2010, in a newly formed aging-focused unit at Novartis. There she led the first randomized clinical trials testing whether low-dose mTOR inhibition could improve immune function in elderly volunteers, rather than just extending lifespan in animal models.
Her trials showed that low-dose rapalogs improved influenza-vaccine responses and reduced the rate of infections in people over 65 — among the first direct evidence in humans that partially inhibiting mTOR could counter an aspect of immune aging. She co-founded resTORbio, a Novartis spinout, to develop RTB101 along these lines, and has since led drug development at Life Biosciences and Tornado Therapeutics before becoming Chief Medical Officer at Altos Labs in 2025.
The timeline below follows Mannick's contributions gathered in this Atlas.
Milestones in the Atlas
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | H | mTOR inhibition improves immune function in the elderly MAN2014 Reports that mTOR inhibition improves immune function in elderly volunteers, one of the first clinical demonstrations of an mTOR-targeted aging intervention in humans. |
| 2018 | H | TORC1 inhibition enhances immune function and reduces infections in the elderly MAN2018 Shows TORC1 inhibition (RTB101) enhances immune function and reduces respiratory infections in elderly volunteers. |
| 2021 | H | Targeting the biology of ageing with mTOR inhibitors to improve immune function in older adults: phase 2b and phase 3 randomised trials MAN2021 Reports phase 2b/3 randomised trial results on targeting the biology of aging with mTOR inhibitors to improve immune function in older adults. |
On the programme
Meetings in the Atlas calendar where Joan B. Mannick is listed among the speakers or organisers.
- upcoming Fifth Geroscience Summit: Revisiting the Geroscience Hypothesis - Focus on Health ↗ 2–3 Dec 2026 · Bethesda, MD, USA · Tier 2